Hi Kristin, There is indeed a great need for the right kind of critical thinking. Otherwise, we could fall for the endless pack of lies from political, cultural, and religious authorities who would be very happy if we totally embraced a notion of NOT THINKING as a desirable spiritual goal. From the link you gave:

Quote:

In a robust aspiring democratic society, language along with critical thought have a liberating function. At best, they work together to shatter illusions, strengthen the power of reason and critical judgment and provide the codes and framing mechanisms for human beings to exercise a degree of self-determination, while holding the throne of raw governmental, military and economic power accountable.

Language in such a society is robust, engaged, critical, dialectical, historical and creates the conditions for dialogue, thoughtfulness and informed action. Such a language refuses to be co-opted in the service of marketing goods, personalities and sleazy corporations. Needless to say, it is a language that is troubling and almost always threatening to the guardians of the status quo. As Toni Morrison said in another context, this is a language, a way of reading and writing the world, that "can disturb the social oppression that functions like a coma on the population, a coma despots call peace ... [that makes visible] the blood flow of war that hawks and profiteers thrill to."1

In authoritarian societies, language works to produce forms of historical and social amnesia, using the media, universities, and other sites of public pedagogy to cover the visual landscape with a coma-producing ignorance. This coma allows the living dead to further experiment with those political mechanisms and social filters employed to freeze meaning, limit the discourses of freedom and make certain ideas unspeakable, if not unthinkable.

If we have been overdeveloping either Logos or Eros at the neglect of the other, all kinds of things are bound to go wrong individually and collectively. I have been pondering mindfully and in a deep feeling sense what a true balanced marriage of both would mean to our human and spiritual progress.

Suzanne

_________________"Only if a man dares to entrust himself again to the depth of his origin can he reach the height for which he was destined." Karlfried Graf Durckheim

A study links life-changing religious experiences, like being born again, with atrophy in the hippocampus.

Gregory

Hi Gregory, I just bought the magazine this afternoon at the Safeway grocery store nearby. I was reading some of one article to my adult daughter about an hour ago.

This article featured professional psych opinions that stated as facts that folks who believe in telepathy, past lives, or communications from the deceased have a schizotypal condition. Hey, we're NUTS! Not as disordered in our brains supposedly as other folks who have schizophrenia... but it is stated as fact and not as opinion that believing in telepathy is in effect delusional. Anyhow, I do not have time to say more now. Maybe I can copy some text from the magazine to here tomorrow. The link goes to the article, but online it is not available to be read in its entirety.

The Unleashed Mind: Why Creative People Are EccentricHighly creative people often seem weirder than the rest of us. Now researchers know why

Personally, I blame such a development on Evolution of the species. How is that for reframing the issue into a positive development.

Strengthening the ego-Self axis works only if the ego is strong enough to be able to have a foot in each world and to know the difference. Weak egos become psychotic and unable to function properly in the outer world as they become absorbed by the inner world. It goes with the territory when one deeply mind-melds with the Eros Self.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum